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Tag Archives: OTN
Big Data, Big Challenge, Big Opportunity
Big data is a hot topic. Everyone from world leaders, to CXOs, to analysts, to media and just about anyone connected to the technology industry is talking about the transformative powers of big data. It even made it onto the agenda of the 2012 annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos. If the hype is to be believed, it has the power to transform businesses, governments and even society itself. It has the power to bring new insights into just about everything and drive a new era of intelligent understanding.
Yet if there’s such potential here, why aren’t we seeing more progress? There can be no question that some companies do understand the opportunities. One need only look at Google or Facebook to realise how these companies are effectively mining their data to drive new business opportunities and further monetize their value proposition. But these companies are rare exceptions. As I highlighted in my previous couple of blog posts, many companies are still very sceptical about moving from traditional business models and reluctant to embrace new opportunities. Read more
Are Teens the Future of the Cloud?
Late last week, ComScore announced its annual US Digital Future in Focus report. While there were no major surprises here regarding digital use, there were a couple of figures that caught my attention. ComScore noted that web-based email usage among 12-17 year olds dropped in 2011 by 31%. This figure was even higher for 18-24 year olds with a decrease of 34%.
Think about that for a moment. Email usage among 18-24 year olds has dropped by over one third. I find this figure incredible. I’m sure these people aren’t communicating any less; in fact, I expect them to be communicating even more. They’re communicating through Twitter, Facebook, Path and the wealth of other social media tools designed purely to share and communicate. Read more
Can 100G Tame the Network?
Barely a week passes without new analyst figures announcing the continued fierce growth in bandwidth and the concern that our networks may soon run out of capacity. This week it was the turn of IDC to release its findings on the state of the networking industry. IDC’s figures confirmed previous studies that show the dramatic growth in broadband connectivity. It expects to see Internet users to reach 2.7 billion by 2015. This represents over 40% of the world’s population and nearly a billion more users than in 2010.
Growth on this scale is phenomenal. What’s more, IDC expects most of this growth to be in mobile broadband, especially as tablets become more affordable (check out an earlier post on this: Mobile Data and the Ticking Tablets). In many respects, this echoes Cisco’s Virtual Networking Index study that predicts a 26-fold increase in mobile data between 2010 and 2015. What’s clear is that mobile usage will overtake PC usage and that mobile data is only going in one direction. Read more
Will Video Become a Network Killer?
As the technology world grapples with the impact of Steve Jobs’ resignation, many journalists and analysts are in a reflective mood, pondering Jobs’ legacy and achievements at Apple. One small part of this legacy will be Jobs’ role in driving the continued video explosion. Jobs acted as a key enabler in creating almost ubiquitous access to video, both in regards to consumption and to sharing. One need only look at the amount of YouTube content viewed on iOS devices to understand the figures involved.
What’s incredible to consider is there are no signs of video demand slowing. Cisco’s Virtual Networking Index (VNI) highlights this continued spectacular growth. Indeed, by 2015, Cisco expects that video traffic will account for 90% of all consumer Internet traffic. What’s more, much of this video will be High Definition (HD). According to the research, 77% of Video-on-Demand (VoD) will be broadcast in HD. Also, VoD traffic will itself increase by 300%, equivalent to 3 billion DVDs downloaded per month. Read more
Is the Buzz Back in Infrastructure?
After a few days out of the office, I found myself yesterday thrown into a hectic schedule of analyst briefings and development calls. At the end of the day, one fact was undeniable – there’s a definite buzz in the optical networking space. As I mentioned in an earlier post, our global networks are at the first stage of what Infonetics Research is calling an optical reboot: The rebuilding of the networks’ core on a foundation of 40/100G, OTN and ROADM technologies.
The success of this rebuild is critical for every member of the networking ecosystem, from businesses aiming to leverage the latest cloud computing applications to reduce IT costs and complexities, to domestic users seeking to consume rich-media applications across a range of devices, and even service providers intent on providing a high-quality of service while at the same time growing profitably. The optical reboot is the first step to ensuring our networks evolve into a flexible infrastructure that can scale to meet tomorrow’s bandwidth demands.
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40/100G Ben Horowitz Cloud computing Corporate Backbones Dig Facebook Foursquare Grid/Cloud Computing Groupon Hardware Internet Bubble Long Haul Transport Metro Core Transport Mobile Backhaul New York Times Optical Optical Networking Optical Reboot OTN Packet Optical Transport ROADM San Connectivity Social Media Software Twitter Venture Capitalists Wireline Backhaul
